Dementia patient death could see changes to missing persons protocols

MARK COLVIN: An elderly Aboriginal man went missing from the Liverpool hospital in southern Sydney in June 2009.

A week later, Harry Gordon Bell was found dead in scrub on the side of a busy highway.

He was 72 and he had dementia.

It was the middle of winter, and a post mortem found that Mr Bell had died of hypothermia.

Now the case could see a major overhaul of the handling of missing persons cases.

Lindy Kerin reports.

LINDY KERIN: Belinda Griffen says her uncle was a good man.

BELINDA GRIFFEN: He was pretty reserved, like he was a very serious kind of a guy as well, but he could joke around and everything.

But he was a very, very hard worker. He'd worked at the fish markets in town for - god, over 30 years - only had one day off in that time.

LINDY KERIN: She says Harry Gordon Bell lived in the inner city suburb of Camperdown for many years, and had a big family.

BELINDA GRIFFEN: He had three children, and grandchildren, great grandchildren, heaps of family members, I mean hundreds of family members.

LINDY KERIN: But at 72, Harry Bell's health deteriorated. In June 2009 after several episodes of getting lost, he was diagnosed with dementia, placed under the care of the public guardian, and sent to an aged care home at Villawood.

After showing signs of aggression at the nursing home, he was taken to Liverpool hospital and scheduled as a mental health patient.

The court has heard that nursing home staff told the hospital Harry Bell had dementia and a history of trying to abscond.

He was seen by several nurses including a specialist in geriatrics, who recommended one-on-one supervision. But that didn't happen. Instead, Mr Bell was sent to a general ward.

Within half an hour, he asked nurse Amy O'Donnell if he could go outside for a cigarette and then he left.

Today, Ms O'Donnell apologised to the family, saying she didn't know Harry Bell had dementia, and that if she did she would never have let him go.

Three hours after he went missing, hospital staff contacted the police but a missing persons report wasn't officially filed.

The deputy state coroner, Sharon Freund, asked whether changes need to be made when people with dementia go missing.

She said:

SHARON FREUND (voiceover): I wonder whether an amber alert system, similar to that used in cases of missing children, needs to be set up for people with dementia.

A missing child is more noticeable in the community than an adult found wandering.

The difference is that people will stop and ask a child if they're OK.

LINDY KERIN: Seven days after he walked out of Liverpool hospital, Harry Bell's body was found by a passer-by in bushland on the side of the Hume Highway. An autopsy found he'd died of hypothermia.

Belinda Griffen says her uncle was found about five kilometres from the hospital.

BELINDA GRIFFEN: It was extremely, extremely disturbing, because we thought he'd head home.

With patients with dementia especially, they look for familiar things. He'd always take the same route, he'd know his way around the shopping centres just locally.

So we thought, OK, well he knows to get on a train to go to Newtown, but not knowing where he was at the time, he headed in another direction.

LINDY KERIN: Belinda Griffen is hoping the inquest will bring changes to make sure this doesn't happen again.

She supports the coroner's suggestion for an amber alert system.

BELINDA GRIFFEN: Especially with dementia patients, Alzheimer's patients, if it's reported as an alert like that, like a child - if a child was playing by himself or wandering around lost, you'd pick that up.

With adults, it's a bit different but if they have problems like that, then it should be alerted straight away to the police, where you don't have to wait the initial 24 hours to put in a missing persons and get a response straight away, like you would a child.

LINDY KERIN: The court has heard that Liverpool hospital has made changes as a result of Mr Bell's death.

It has introduced a new policy about patients at risk of absconding and has delivered training courses to health staff about dementia.

A new 26 bed aged care facility opened earlier this year, to treats patients like Harry Bell.